Rep. Paul Ryan R-Wis., chairman of the House budget committee, knew some Catholics were spoiling for a fight with him Thursday when he was scheduled to speak at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution. Nearly 90 faculty members and administrators sent him a letter expressing concerns with his recent comments that his proposed budget, which includes…
Tag: gop
Top Republican Says Senate GOP Could Escalate Government Shutdown Fight
A member of the Senate GOP leadership says he and his colleagues could end up backing House Republicans in their efforts to fund the government at levels below those agreed to in the bipartisan debt-limit deal last August, increasing the chances of a government shutdown fight just weeks before the 2012 election. “I think the…
The Right-Wing Bully Machine
Not all overheated political rhetoric is alike. Delusional right-wing crazy talk — the kind of ranting we’ve heard recently from washed-up rock star Ted Nugent and tea party-backed Rep. Allen West — is a special kind of poison that cannot be safely ignored. Let me be clear: I’m saying that the extreme language we hear…
Why Hasn’t the Right Condemned Ted Nugent and Allen West’s Comments?
Mother Jones’ DC bureau chief David Corn and the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson joined host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball to discuss the controversy over incendiary remarks made against the Democrat party by US Rep. Allen West and right-wing rocker Ted Nugent. At a town hall meeting in Florida last week, Rep. West told voters…
Obama: Some in GOP Forget How America Was Built
Pounding home the theme of his re-election race against Mitt Romney, Obama said he wants to ensure tax fairness for all while Republicans want to “shower the wealthiest Americans” with tax cuts they don’t need. Obama said the public doesn’t like to see tax dollars wasted, but does want to see money spent in areas…
Cantor’s ‘Small Business’ Bill is a $46 Billion Loophole for the Rich
The U.S. House of Representatives early next week will hold a vote on H.R. 9, a bill introduced by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) to provide a one-year, 20 percent tax deduction for business income. The Cantor bill is sadly just another tax windfall for the rich, financed by larger federal budget deficits, which largely…
Economy has grown the most when Democrats have been in power
Earlier today, I linked to a Goldman Sachs research note arguing that the most fiscally conservative outcome in the 2012 election would be an Obama victory and Republican control of Congress. But their analysis was limited to deficit reduction. Last week, JPMorgan looked at this question using a broader lens: what happens to the economy…
Despite History and the Numbers, Wall Street Wants Republican in the White House
The stock market may be up more than 75% since President Obama moved into the White House, but Wall Street is looking for a change come November. Stocks have historically performed better during a Democratic administration, yet a whopping 70% of investment strategists and money managers say a Republican president will be better for the…
A Business Bet on the G.O.P. May Be Backfiring
Business groups that worked hard to install a Republican majority in the House equated Republican control with a business-friendly environment. But the majority is first and foremost a conservative political force, and on key issues, its ideology is not always aligned with commercial interests that helped finance election victories. “Free market is not always the…
Why the Republican budgets make the poor pay
But now cuts to those programs have to pay for the deficit reduction, the increased defense spending, and the tax cuts. That means the cuts to those programs have to be really, really, really deep. The authors have no other choice. In Ryan’s plan, for instance, revenues are approximately $2 trillion below the levels in…
GOP Budget Plan To Reduce The Debt Actually Makes The Debt Worse
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) released the GOP’s new budget this morning, and in doing so, he touted it as a plan to make America’s level of debt more sustainable. “We’ve shared with Americans a specific plan of action that cuts spending, pays off the debt and gets our economy back on the…
Mitch McConnell(Senate Republican) Votes Against Highway Bill He Backed
McConnell’s staff claimed, “Senator McConnell has been working to pass the highway bill in the U.S. Senate, which is currently slated for a vote on final passage next week.” A McConnell spokesman also told a Louisville, Kentucky radio station that the minority leader was working with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to pass the…
Drug Testing Bill Targets Florida State Workers, Excludes Lawmakers
A Florida state lawmaker is pushing a bill requiring state agencies to test their workers for drugs. But the bill wouldn’t mandate testing for all public sector employees; members of the Florida legislature would get a pass. Rep. Jimmie Smith (R-Lecanto), the bill’s sponsor, said he supports drug testing for lawmakers, but requiring them to…
Senators Take Emergency Oil Reserve Hostage to Force Keystone Approval
The Senate is trying to force a pipeline route through Nebraska that is not yet identified, let alone evaluated to determine whether its impact on air and water quality. Because much of the tar sands oil refined in the U.S. would go overseas, Americans would bear the environmental risks while other nations get the oil….
Congress reaches final payroll tax deal
Congressional negotiators resolved all differences on an agreement to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits while avoiding a fee cut for Medicare doctors for the rest of the year, leaving only technical issues to sort out. “It’s good for the country. It’s very good for the country,” Montana’s Max Baucus, the Democratic chairman…
Obama continues push for payroll tax cut extension
President Barack Obama continues his push Tuesday to get Congress to extend a payroll tax cut, a day after House Republican leaders agreed to remove an obstacle in the passage of the tax cut extension. Obama released Tuesday a video about what he called the need to extend the tax cut by the end of…
GOP Construction of a Fictional “Obama” Has Taken a Turn to the Absurd
Contrary to the fictional stories told by Republicans, the president has cut taxes (taxes are lower under Obama than they were under Ronald Reagan, and the tax burden on Americans is the lowest it’s been since 1950), raised the military budget, been more aggressive in fighting Islamist militants than his predecessor (bin Laden and numerous…
Second White Nationalist Appearing At CPAC
Though gay conservatives arent welcome at the Conservative Political Action Confrence this year, at least two white nationalists are appearing at the yearly conservative confab. One is Peter Brimelow, founded of the nativist site VDARE which publishes the works of white nationalists like Jared Taylor, and the other is Robert Vandervoort, who runs a group called…
Why Is Paul Ryan So Angry About Reduced Unemployment?
In other words, after more than a year of obstruction by a Republican-controlled US House that has refused to act to address unemployment and underemployment, and that has rejected sound proposals for addressing the mortgage crisis, Ryan and his allies are attacking the Obama administration, Bernanke and the Fed for trying to do something. That’s…
Nevada Republican Voters Asked: What Would It Take For You To Support Barack Obama?
In order to understand how deeply ingrained Republican hatred for President Barack Obama truly is, you need only ask one question: What would the president have to do to win your support? It’s rhetorical. There is nothing the president could do, save become a Republican himself, to placate many angry Republican voters. But when asked…